1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to maintaining medical records of patients within a health care organization and, more specifically, to maintaining and updating medical records in a computer networked system, including patient medical records and billing records. The present invention further relates to systems and methods that provide simultaneous tracking of activities relating to patient care by recording healthcare events as discrete data points that are simultaneously displayed in the patient record and shown as entries in a generated note or patient summary sheet.
2. Background and Related Art
Record keeping is critically important in the health care industry. The advent of the computer has been particularly helpful in the health care industry in keeping records that aid the health care provider in evaluating the patient's health and treatment history with that particular health care organization. Further, the recording of health care history for a group of patients is useful in conducting medical research for individuals having like symptoms and like treatments. Further still, there is an advantage of having computerized aids in managing costs and providing billing records for the health care provider, the patient, the insurance providers, as well as any governmental health care program such as, for example, Medicare.
However, while computerized health record technologies are currently available, challenges still exist. Accordingly, it would be an improvement in the art to augment or even replace current techniques with other techniques.